David Marsh

We've been without Jacobs since the start of the year and Strother has been sidelined as well... both were slated as starters. Crazy how we've weathered that.

Lots of starts and expienctcan help... But are they physically gifted enough to be dominant. So far not the case. I mean... I could have perfect technique as an offensive lineman and loads of expirence... but at the end of the day I'm no where near big enough to compete with those players and they'll knock me ony butt every time. Colorado has bigger linemen than me that's for sure... but are they going to be physically big enough and fast enough to keep up with the better pass rushers in the conference? We have yet to see that. You can get a lot of good talent from the transfer portal. But there is also a lot of talent in the portal because they weren't that good where they used to play as well.

The Buffs are playing like a big 12 team right now. They'll happily play a shootout and so far that's really what they've gotten... minus 3 quarters of Colorado State. They have been very lucky with the turnovers going their way as well. They'll be a solid team in the Big 12 next year. We'll see if their defense can step up if they offense struggles this weekend... assuming Oregon's defense causes them some problems.

Insanely busy day for me today so sadly this is the first time I've had a chance to check the forum. I'd also like to note that Oregon is a mature program. We have our traditions... in that we love to not have a traditional uniform but change them all the time. But we have a brand that is recognizable and everyone knows it. That Oregon O means something. So we aren't dependent anymore on being the hotness... And we'll steal some of that hotness again soon when he crush Colorado and then Washington... and the rest of the conference.

Is TCU good this year? Nebraska isn't good that's for sure. Colorado State... they're mountain west so competing with a P5 team is plenty good for a G5 team.

Schooler should have been a great Duck.. he was a fantastic defensive player his first year at Oregon. Then we "needed" him at receiver more so he was moved to receiver where he just never found his talent. He wasn't the worst receiver but his calling was on defense. He was a good blocker though...

It feels like the guard spots are struggling with run blocking. Pass blocking has been solid. But it's those inside runs that we just don't seem to be getting the correct gaps right now. This is something that can be fixed but it needs to happen soon. I feel the coaches are being cautious with Irving right now and not giving him too many touches to save him for the later season...but I also feel like they never really give him enough snaps as it is. Whittington and James played fairly well last night... but I don't feel either are as transformative play makers as Irving.

Against Hawaii the front seven looked like they took another step forward. The Ducks recorded two sacks which doesn't seem like much but Hawaii was getting the ball out super fast, as in 2 seconds or less fast, and as Charles said in his article from a couple weeks ago, it's really hard to get a sack that fast. Granted... Popo manged to get his sack that way as he just ran right through the offensive line and got a sack... but that's rare even against G5 or FCS schools. Also.. I don't know how many hurried passes the Ducks forced this game but it has to be a lot. I saw the Hawaii QB basically get the ball and throw it as soon as he had it in his hands and the vast majority of those passes were incomplete whether they were too far in front or behind the receiver or just off completely. There were a lot of passes that went no where because the QB had a simple choice.. throw it out of rhythm and early or take a sack. He threw it early. Against Colorado Oregon should rack up some sacks. Sanders holds onto the ball a lot longer as a part of the offense and after watching two and a half Colorado games at this point I can say he has a propensity for hero ball, of which he can do if the defense lets him. But if this Oregon pass rush continues to take another step this week, he'll be on the ground a lot. That Colorado O-line hasn't been able to stop anyone and Oregon will have the most talented D-line they will have faced to date. If Colorado avoids taking sacks it will be because they game plan around getting the ball out fast.

This is fine... polls this time of year are pretty pointless for the reality of the games being played. I am by no means saying there shouldn't be polls this time of year, they are great fun for fans, but they don't tell us much. Oregon continues to surge in silence which is just the way we like it. We dominated the two games we should have and survived a road trip to Texas against a Texas Tech team that is truthfully much better than their record, I do expect them to be ranked at some point this season. The Ducks are doing what they need to do... we have reached Top 10 status and I suspect with a solid win against top 20 team Colorado this next weekend we silently surge higher up the rankings. This weekend is going to have a whole lot of flash around it with Colorado in town.

uggh... why did Colorado State touch the ball after the punt.. they could have let it sit there until the clock was gone. Giving one play to the opponent with a tied game is not smart football.

Sanders is also big on playing hero ball... he just doesn't seem to want to throw the ball away but is looking to make the big play and gets sacked.

Even if Colorado wins... they are in for a rough time in Eugene next week. Oregon's pass rush looked good tonight. We only got one or two sacks because Hawaii was getting that ball out super fast. But also if you watch a lot of those incomplete passes those were hurries because the defensive line was coming in hot after him. Colorado's offense just doesn't get the ball out as fast which will mean more sacks.

Colorado and Colorado State are in a dog fight right now... wasn't Colorado supposed to win this one by a healthy margin? I know still first quarter... But I guess this "it's personal" motivation stuff can cut both ways.

It would be great. What I think may be coming through is that Bama is not a Bama-quality team this year. And maybe Texas is just Texas...

Canzano had a proposal for what OSU and WSU may want to do for a year... keep the conference at two and do a home and home series with each other and then scramble and pick up 5 other non-conference games. They get to live off the leftover fat of the of conference for a year while setting up who to bring into the conference for 2025 and beyond. I get some of the logic... but I feel that it is pretty pathetic and sad and everyone is going to see it that way. If they do pursue this too that schedule they are going to have it going to be so bad that even if one goes undefeated they'll not get a playoff invite. It'll welcome ridicule. Also... other thought... if we do see a conference de-alignment happen where a Pacific coast conference reemerges with all the classical powers and the pac-12 is still around though as efficiently a G5 conference... would Oregon, Washington, Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA join a lesser pac-12 or create a new conference of real power teams? Yeah... they'll be making a new conference if that scenario comes to pass and OSU and WSU may be left out again. Let the pac-12 die for now so it may be reborn later.

Sometimes teams need some extra motivation to dig deep. But I don't think making everything personal and having to push back against someone else's words or narrative is sustainable. At some point players need to dig deep and play to win because they want to win. Do you think Saban, Smart or Dabo get their players hyped to play a game by saying the other coach said mean things about them? No... they focus on their business and take care of business. This stuff I think works in the short run and may help build a team up and believe in themselves but when do things stop being personal and a team just needs to take care of business and win?

I also don't think MSU was all that good before the off field distractions. They downright stank last year.

Also... I'm feeling better about Oregon's offensive line as I'm watching Bama's line getting torn to shreds by USF.

All fan bases start to lose it when you have wins like that. Right now I think some Bamanfans may be calling for Saban's head with how they're performing against South Florida. I do think that Saban will be gutting his staff by year's end regardless.

The Big 12 has been give their role to play and accepted it... they are a tier 2 conference. They lack any of the big blue blood major brands and have a bunch of good but not great teams. They will be included for the playoff but it will be a long shot if the conference can ever win one. The ACC is currently a mix of a tier 1 and tier 2 conference .... they still have their big brands but they are feeling the pressures and they won't last long. The ACC Is Next on the Chopping Block for Conference Realignment FISHDUCK.COM Last year I wrote an article about the Coming College Football Schism where there will be two conferences...

That's what they actually want... they can talk about how they want to save the conference but at best they are just saving the name. ACC is probably more likely at this point... as the Big 12 did what their masters wanted and consumed all the programs they wanted.. Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State. Their media overlords had no interest in Cal and Stanford which is why they went to the ACC... and no one has shown any interest in WSU and OSU which is why they are discarded. Other programs will be discarded soon enough as well, we are still only at the beginning of this process it feels like or maybe just at act 2 of a five act play...

Not sure I agree with that opening line... "their colors were basic" ... We don't wear red and white really only appears when we play away games... Green and Yellow are hardly basic in the college sports world.

I wasn't aware that was the rule... I just know that in the past when I have paid for the network and Oregon only being on it for the first couple of games was frustrating only because I was still paying for it. Now... I use a VPN to connect to Canada and watch the games on Pac-12 International for free on youtube. I just don't remember seeing this many games slated for the network for one weekend before. A couple of teams are being thrown onto their local Pac-12 network channel which just seems absolutely crazy.

I can say them all right in my head... but I struggle with them verbally.

So tomorrow there will be SEVEN games on the pac-12 network. I don't remember the last time there have been so many games on the Larry's loser network in one day. Many of these games will only be on their regional networks. Thankfully the Oregon game is going to be on the main channel (and the Oregon channel) while Stanford will be relegated to the Bay Area only channel. So there will be a lot of people (even people with the network) who won't be able to see at least half of these seven games tomorrow. Talk about awful...thankfully we won't have to deal with this next year.